02/16/09

Oh well, I’m sorry but it’s true, there’s far too much media hype at the moment surrounding the social media site Twitter. Sure its a contentious issue, with some claiming its the future of online social media, whilst others simply shrug and say “what’s the point?”, one thing is for sure its definitely generating the “Marmite effect” – you either love it or hate it!

Twitter - Love It or Hate It?

But hate is a strong word and there’s certainly some clear benefits for businesses requiring an additional marketing channel to interact with their consumers.

Can you imagine people signing up for Domestos “Tweets”…. new pine fresh ultra strength bog bleach….25p off your next purchase, just use this code….

Aparantly Stephen Fry and MC Hammer both love Twittering away and it has absolutely nothing to do with boosting theirs ego’s on seeing 30,000 people have signed up to be alerted that at 7:15am Stephen completed the Times crossword in less than 3 minutes again and MC Hammer developed a penchant for buttered crumpets (ahem).

Communicating with an idol or someone who inspires you is certainly appealing and depending on the brand/company, opting-in to receive information about products and services that you want to hear about – rather than having involuntary adverts rammed down your throat whilst you’re trying to enjoy Emmerdale, that surely makes sense?

I guess that’s the difference between traditional sales methods and modern marketing – rather than trying to force your products/services onto anyone who’ll listen, you embrace those who appreciate your company and open communications as wide as possible

The hype over Twitter has certainly been accelerated by dribbling advertisers, aroused by the huge volumes of people using such services. As of today, 193,826 people are following Stephen Fry’s Twitter account and sales and marketing gurus across the globe are dreaming up ideas and concepts to get adverts or promotions in-front of each and every one of them.

Look how much Facebook was valued at – $15 Billion- yet still it fails to generate a fraction of the prediction. Venture capitalist investment has just topped £34Million and no doubt Twitter will continue to prove useful for celebrities (however minor) to promote their day-to-day activities to fans whilst offering strong online brands the opportunity to interact with devoted consumers, but otherwise it’s nothing more than a way to send a very short message to a large group of people.